"The biggest public mistake I ever made was that I chose to do Criminal Minds in the first place. I thought it was something very different. I never thought they were going to kill and rape all these women every night, every day, week after week, year after year. It was very destructive to my soul and my personality." Patinkin also addressed the whole crime drama genre. "I'm not making a judgment on the taste [of people who watch crime procedurals]," he said. "But I'm concerned about the effect it has. Audiences all over the world use this programming as their bedtime story. This isn't what you need to be dreaming about."

He isn't wrong about that last bit. those shows ARE pretty violent and depraved. sure, it's a paycheck but...I'm not sure i'd want to get up every day and read another script that deals with more ways to violate the human mind, body and/or spirit. there's been more than one episode of 'criminal minds' that made me ill.

LDM90:Kanemano: When you watch other peoples pain for its entertainment value, what does that say about you?

I wonder this too. Most of the popular shows of the last decade or so have featured protagonists who are pretty horrible people. The Shield, Sopranos, Dexter, Breaking Bad, etc. I know I'm in the minority here, but I can't seem to be entertained when I hate every single character.

I know, I should go watch my Mr Rogers DVDs.

Isn't watching other peoples pain for entertainment what humans have been doing since Ancient Greek theater and probably before?

Weaver95:"The biggest public mistake I ever made was that I chose to do Criminal Minds in the first place. I thought it was something very different. I never thought they were going to kill and rape all these women every night, every day, week after week, year after year. It was very destructive to my soul and my personality." Patinkin also addressed the whole crime drama genre. "I'm not making a judgment on the taste [of people who watch crime procedurals]," he said. "But I'm concerned about the effect it has. Audiences all over the world use this programming as their bedtime story. This isn't what you need to be dreaming about."

He isn't wrong about that last bit. those shows ARE pretty violent and depraved. sure, it's a paycheck but...I'm not sure i'd want to get up every day and read another script that deals with more ways to violate the human mind, body and/or spirit. there's been more than one episode of 'criminal minds' that made me ill.

Here here! I've never made it through an episode of Criminal Minds. After 5 minutes I turn it off thinking 'this is entertainment?' the same with The mentalist, which is a shame because originally I liked it.